Grade Snapshot

Bertrand Tavernier (“’Round Midnight”) directs this lush, unsentimental take on the historical romance, which takes a clear-eyed look at the intersection of passion and power in 16th-century France. Young, beautiful aristocrat Marie favors war hero Henri, but she’s married off to the Prince of Montpensier for political reasons. Once at court, she inspires love, violence, and thirst for power in the men around her as civil war tears the country apart. [Synopsis courtesy of Chicago Film Festival]